Posted by fallsfall on May 1, 2005, at 9:39:31
In reply to Re: Book suggestions? » Dinah, posted by daisym on April 30, 2005, at 23:04:46
I got "The mummy at the dining room table" from the library, but I have to admit to a bit of dismay (I've only read the first 3 chapters or so). It seems like it is more focused on talking about patients who don't seem representative of the kinds of people we are. We are the normal everyday people with normal everyday problems who had (well maybe not quite) normal everyday childhoods. I guess that I see that our situations are "difficult", but not "sensational". We would not be "interesting" enough to be included in a book like that. I sort of had the same reaction to "Tales from the traveling couch" (though that one was good enough that I've read it twice).
I guess when I read case stories, I prefer to find ones that show *how* the therapist can work to break through some of the defenses that the patient has. To see how the patient can be blind to fairly obvious things, and then be able to start to see them. So I tend to prefer clinical case studies (particularly those with verbatum sessions). There was one book I found in the local University (I want to say it is "Dependency in psychotherapy; a casebook", but I would have to go to the library to see if that was the book) that had not only a facinating discussion of dependency (a subject near and dear to my heart), but also had verbatum sessions with annotations of what the therapist was doing (i.e. was it clarification, interpretation, question, challange etc.). My guess is that this particular book is not widely available, though.
I found reading through different technical case studies allowed me to see the differences between the different types of therapy (i.e. CBT vs. analysis). And reading about analysis is what made me think that I needed to go a bit deeper than my CBT was taking me.
This said, I'm not sure that it would be good for me (right now) to be reading these things. I have gotten to a place where I am analyzing my therapy less and participating more. But I think that reading about the nuts and bolts of therapy did help me to be more open and honest. So just because it might not be the best thing for me right now, doesn't mean it wouldn't be helpful for others.
The other book that I've found really helpful is "Metaphor Therapy: Using Client-Generated Metaphors in Psychotherapy". This book talks about how metaphors (particularly those used spontaneously by the patient) can be used to promote change. I have found myself using this technique myself (to my therapist's chagrin...), and it has been very useful for me. So this might be an example of a book that can show a particular technique that we could learn to use ourselves. However, there are NO copies of this title in any library in my state (I found it at a used book store). So books like this could be harder to obtain.
I definately recommend asking your library about InterLibrary Loan for books like this. Through ILL we have access to the University libraries, which have some of these more technical books.
But then again, the rest of you might not want to be technical... Which is why I didn't jump in to this thread at the beginning - I'm not sure that I speak for the masses.
Just my rambling 2 cents...
poster:fallsfall
thread:491935
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20050428/msgs/492251.html